Affordability checks petition surpasses 100,000 signatures less than a month after launch

The Jockey Club CEO Nevin Truesdale’s petition to stop the implementation of affordability checks has reached 100,000 signatures in just under a month of being live.

The petition was launched on 1 November and has called for the abandonment of the proposed measures.

More than 15,000 people signed the document in less than 24 hours, but progress had slowed throughout November.

Under petition law in the UK, those submissions that garner more than 10,000 signatures will receive a response from the government on the matter.

On 16 November, the government released a statement concerning the petition, and doubled down on its insistence that affordability checks will not be introduce en masse until they could be truly frictionless.

Now, with the petition having broken the 100,000 signature threshold, parliament will consider the topic for debate. No date has been given at the time of writing.

Affordability checks have drawn major scrutiny from the industry, with Truesdale’s petition showing a swelling consensus.

The proposals, which were part of the white paper into the Gambling Act 2005 review published in late April, were included in the first tranche of consultations led by the Gambling Commission (GC), which closed on 18 October. 

A response around these consultations is expected in early 2024, as confirmed by GC chief Andrew Rhodes last week.

The proposals for affordability checks are on two levels. The first would see light-touch checks for a net loss of £125 within a rolling 30-day period or £500 over a 365-day rolling period. 

The second level would see checks initiated when a bettor has a net loss of more than £1,000 over 24 hours or £2,000 over a 90-day rolling period. 

A statement alongside the petition said: “We want the government to abandon the planned implementation of affordability checks for some people who want to place a bet.

“We accept the need to help those with problem gambling, but more intrusive checks triggered at a higher threshold risks bettors moving to the black market where there are no consumer protections or safer gambling tools.

“We are concerned there will also be a negative impact on British horseracing’s finances due to a reduction in betting turnover and resulting fall in levy yield,” the statement concludes.

In recent days, trainer Nicky Henderson threw his support behind the petition, believing the checks would do “untold damage” to not only the British horseracing industry but to local areas as well.